? 10/08/2018 Kit, AMPS 106, PMPS 73 (or 25?!?!)

C_Star

C_Star

Member Since 2018
Hi All,

Just did my PMPS, and my first reading was 25 (1.4)!!!! I did it again immediately on the other ear and got 73 (4.1). Both tests had a decent sample of blood.

I checked with the control solution on a new strip and got a 146 (8.1). I'm not super familiar with using the AlphaTrak II Control Solution, but I've read it should fall between 100-185 (5.5-10.27mmol), which it did.

I've given Kit 40 Temptations drizzled in honey to bring up his blood glucose, just in case, and no insulin. He ate it happily.

He has no symptoms and is sitting curled up beside me, giving himself a bath, but I'm still very concerned.

Was the first number just a fluke??
How should I proceed?
He was only diagnosed 5 weeks ago, so I'm not well-versed in what to do.

Advice would be appreciated.
Thanks <3
 
Also, I should note, I don't think I'm yet either TR or SLGS.

My vet started me on a very variable dose (outlined here) which we stayed on for a month. 1 week ago, she switched to only 0.5u Lantus twice a day, as long as he's above 4.5mmol (81).

I changed his diet 10 days ago to a lower carb diet, despite our vet's recommendations for him to stay on Renal Support diet with higher carbs because he also has stage 1 CKD.Previously, he ate Royal Canin Renal E (21% carb), now he eats Weruva Truluxe Steak Frites (6% carbs).

We test with AlphaTrak II. I know this forum prefers human glucometers, but we're new and originally just bought what the vet recommended.
Spreadsheet is in my signature, and we did glucose curves yesterday and the day before.
 
Chances are you might not have gotten enough blood on the first test. That can cause tests strips to read low. Good thought on retesting. I might almost have gotten a third test to make sure it wasn't the second one that was a wonky test, sort of a tie breaker.

The 40 temptaxtions was a bit of overkill. They are very high carb. Some people use one or two. 73 is a safe number, though on the low end. But no wonder he happily ate the treats! Do you have any high carb wet food around? Something with gravy? Those are a better choice for low numbers. I would test again in half an hour, to make sure his numbers are up. Our usual take action or number where we give high carb is 68.

Have you decided what dosing method you are using? I think in either case you might want to lower his dose to 0.25 units. My thinking is that if you are using SLGS, he earned a reduction by going below 90. If using TR (though you are missing tests for that), then it looks close to a week in normal numbers on the AT. In either case, that's a 0.25 unit reduction down to 0.25 units dose.
 
We posted at the same time. Good plan staying away from the high carb renal food. You don't need that for early stages of kidney disease. Low carb, low phosphorus, high quality protein is better. Might want to mark the day you made the food change in the remarks section of the spreadsheet, that's a significant event.

Happy Thanksgiving.
 
Sorry for messing you up. You put the 911 until you get the attention of one of the experienced people on the forum. Once you are getting help, you can take off the 911, which you can do now.
It's still good for you to know for the future. These guys are amazing on this forum.
 
Rosie & Bailey said:
Sorry for messing you up. You put the 911 until you get the attention of one of the experienced people on the forum. Once you are getting help, you can take off the 911, which you can do now.
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Thank you! I was uncertain if this warranted a 911 (and was worrying over whether I was overreacting) so I really appreciate that you told me to re-post with it. Next time I'll know it's ok to write a 911 if I have genuine worries :)
 
Wendy&Neko said:
We posted at the same time. Good plan staying away from the high carb renal food. You don't need that for early stages of kidney disease. Low carb, low phosphorus, high quality protein is better. Might want to mark the day you made the food change in the remarks section of the spreadsheet, that's a significant event.

Happy Thanksgiving.
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Thank you so much!
Yes, I might have overreacted with the Temptations feast. Now that I've re-examined, it was probably more like 30, but still -- no doubt 27 too many!

Since posting, I've given him his old dry food, Royal Canin Renal Support, since I know the Hypo Sticky advises that the dry food will start slower but have a longer effect than the honey Temptations which will spike his BG quickly.

So it's been an hour since our first scary reading and I've re-checked his BG which is now 9.2 (165). No doubt high from all the sweeties.

Should I give his PM dose or refrain tonight?



This Thanksgiving, I give thanks for the great community of people willing to give their free time, support, and compassion to help other people on this message board. It's a huge help and I'm so grateful! :bighug:
 
C_Star said:
I really appreciate that you told me to re-post with it.
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You are so welcome. I have received so much help on this board that it feels good to be able to help someone else, even if it's with something so small.

Did you give the PM dose yet? I wish could be more helpful.
Maybe try to get @Wendy&Neko 's attention again? If not, maybe edit the title with the word help.
 
Rosie & Bailey said:
You are so welcome. I have received so much help on this board that it feels good to be able to help someone else, even if it's with something so small.

Did you give the PM dose yet? I wish could be more helpful.
Maybe try to get @Wendy&Neko 's attention again? If not, maybe edit the title with the word help.
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I haven't given a PM dose yet. We just tested again and got a 6.1 (110).

Re-posting again with "Help" in the title.


Thank you! <3
 
Sorry, was on the road from Thanksgiving get togethers.
C_Star said:
Yes, I might have overreacted with the Temptations feast. Now that I've re-examined, it was probably more like 30, but still -- no doubt 27 too many!

Since posting, I've given him his old dry food, Royal Canin Renal Support, since I know the Hypo Sticky advises that the dry food will start slower but have a longer effect than the honey Temptations which will spike his BG quickly.

So it's been an hour since our first scary reading and I've re-checked his BG which is now 9.2 (165). No doubt high from all the sweeties.

Should I give his PM dose or refrain tonight?
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First of all, it's getting later, I would skip for two reasons. First, he's had a ton of high carb food. At some point those carbs will wear off and he might come down. And you've added dry food to the picture, so it'll take quite a while to wear off. We have no idea what his blood sugar would be without influence of carbs. So, just skip and regroup tomorrow. Second reason for skipping, it's now over an hour since your normal shot time, and you'd have to shoot next 12 hour from whenever you would shoot tonight. If you have to go to work, that may not work for your schedule.

Stop with the high carb food now! Try some of his regular low carb food. He was in normal numbers and is getting higher. You don't need to spike him any more. Best choice, ditch the high carb dry food and buy some low phosphorus but high carb wet food. Weruva Grandma's Chicken Soup or some of the Cats in the Kitchen pouches are good choices. They will take a couple of hours to wear off, which is long enough. Dry food takes forever to wear off.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
Sorry, was on the road from Thanksgiving get togethers.


First of all, it's getting later, I would skip for two reasons. First, he's had a ton of high carb food. At some point those carbs will wear off and he might come down. And you've added dry food to the picture, so it'll take quite a while to wear off. We have no idea what his blood sugar would be without influence of carbs. So, just skip and regroup tomorrow. Second reason for skipping, it's now over an hour since your normal shot time, and you'd have to shoot next 12 hour from whenever you would shoot tonight. If you have to go to work, that may not work for your schedule.

Stop with the high carb food now! Try some of his regular low carb food. He was in normal numbers and is getting higher. You don't need to spike him any more. Best choice, ditch the high carb dry food and buy some low phosphorus but high carb wet food. Weruva Grandma's Chicken Soup or some of the Cats in the Kitchen pouches are good choices. They will take a couple of hours to wear off, which is long enough. Dry food takes forever to wear off.
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Thanks for replying even though you're on the road after holidays!

Sounds like excellent reasons to skip.
We just tested, and he's dropped from 9.1 to 6.1 in 1hr, so sounds like his BG is going down quickly.

And yes, high carb food is taken away! (For him, at least... I'm still stress eating to get through this ;))

Again, thanks for your time and advice!
 
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Just a word about the Alphatrak2. I have two of them and have learned that two tests in rapid succession with the same meter will give really crazy different results. It seems that it needs a break to reset or something. I wish I could say definitively how many minutes it takes, but I was really frustrated when I first tried retesting right away.
 
Beck and Grandpa said:
Just a word about the Alphatrak2. I have two of them and have learned that two tests in rapid succession with the same meter will give really crazy different results. It seems that it needs a break to reset or something. I wish I could say definitively how many minutes it takes, but I was really frustrated when I first tried retesting right away.
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Thank you!

Yes, it's confusing -- I get all kinds of numbers.

I just tested him again (3 hours after his scary wonky reading) and he's at 8.1 (110). An hour ago, he was at 6.1 (146). Two hours ago, he was 9.1 (164). Could his numbers be fluctuating up and down that wildly? Or do you think the AlphaTrak is just off still?
 
The rate at which dry food wears off is unpredictable, but it looks like it slowly is wearing off and his numbers are slowly coming down.
 
C_Star said:
Thank you!

Yes, it's confusing -- I get all kinds of numbers.

I just tested him again (3 hours after his scary wonky reading) and he's at 8.1 (110). An hour ago, he was at 6.1 (146). Two hours ago, he was 9.1 (164). Could his numbers be fluctuating up and down that wildly? Or do you think the AlphaTrak is just off still?
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Numbers can fluctuate on any meter by + or - 20% so they are most helpful as a gauge to make sure the kitty is in a safe range. I see 110, 146, and 164 as all similar numbers, especially the last two. My Grandpa can drop (or increase) 100 or more in a short timeframe.

If the scary number in the 20s was a real number and not a bad strip or something, that would scare me, but the numbers you're seeing now are really nice.

That being said, there are folks here much more experienced than me such as (@Wendy&Neko), so you'll likely get more detailed info from them.
 
Wendy&Neko said:
The rate at which dry food wears off is unpredictable, but it looks like it slowly is wearing off and his numbers are slowly coming down.
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Yes, he's going down... and up... and down... and up.
So he's not going continually down. He just spiked again 45 mins ago (which might be the dry food? He ate it 3 hours ago.)

To clarify, over the past 4 hours, he's been:
4.1 (74) fed carbs
9.1 (164)
6.1 (110)
8.1 (146)

Hopefully he's in the clear now.
 
Hi Caitlin, and welcome.

I just want to commend you, as Wendy did, for retesting when you got that scary number. I highly recommend to everyone to do that whenever they get a number that surprises them, even if it's an unusually high number. Because it's always possible that you got a bad strip, not enough blood, etc., retesting can help you take the best possible action. I'm sure your heart was pounding like crazy when you saw that 25!

Just to clarify on the use of the 911 in the subject line. We ask that it be reserved for situations that are possibly life-threatening. Getting a reading of 25 and not being sure what to do qualifies. Once you have eyes on you, we ask that you remove the 911 so others know there is no danger. If you are just concerned about something and need an answer quickly, but there is no imminent threat to your kitty, please use the ? and add at least part of your question to the subject line. If there are several posts on your thread when the question comes up, be sure to add a new post asking the question and giving any pertinent details. We always go first to the newest post when responding.

Here is a post we put together to help new members get comfortable with the forum. Sort of like a Q&A.

You're off to a great start with home testing. Keep reading all the info on our stickies and keep asking questions. There's a lot to absorb and can't possibly do it quickly, unless you have a photographic memory! We were all new at this once and understand how stressful and confusing it can be. That said, you are in the best possible place to learn how to help you precious Kit. We're glad you found us!
 
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